Weekday
The weekly feature page of the University Daily Kansan September 20,1978
Grapplers' GRIP
The pin pad was their objective. Push or pull your opponents arm so it touches the pad and clicks on a red light—as red as your opponents face—and you win.
Story by John Tharp Photos by Trish Lewis
Joe Bob Womack high-stopped across the stage to a certain army wrestling table with a crazed, roaring audience.
The jongkun Texax took his arm wrestling as seriously as he would a first-time job. He came up to the table—and with the same stare, looking not unlike a leading character in a movie. He grabbed on the tapboard with his left hand and stretched his body from butt to head, nosing the pin pad on the table.
Womack still had the eerie carrie when the referee ordered him to "set a grip" with his opponent, a normal-looking man. Womack lunged, grabbed the man's hand and gave the referee going for ore, and terked the man toward him.
BY THIS TIME, Womack was staring into space, his mind and blue eyes obvious to the television lights, when the referee had to holler "let go" several times, and then forcibly try the two men's hands apart. This was no easy task for refered Male Brown, a 200-pound ex-marine from New York, new gift was set, the referee—avoiding Womack's thick knot, nondyptic stare—commanded the first "ye."
Then, according to arm wrestling rules, four seconds later, the referee shouted the second "go."
A participant then could move his entire body, and not just his arm. Woman's deep, crazed, concentrated stare, aimed at mustering from the depths of his frame every muscle he had, paid off.
Quicker than you could say "alarm-bank-thank-you-ma-ma" Womack screamed "eeyeyau" and
went out the door.
BUT WOMACK, the Southwest men's mid-dieldweight champ, didn't pin all opponents at the World Pro Arm-Wrestling Championships in Kansas City, Mo., last weekend. He made it to the finals and then lost to the opponent put him down with no star, no "evaugh"—just strength and strategy.
Womack's style is unique. He was the only arm wrestled who was paid up with a stair. Others had been paid by the door.
One huk, a man and a half, hyperventilated like a widened runer. But the starte beat on the panting
In addition, but the size and women competing in different weight groups, more than 100 arm wrestling styles appeared.
WARNING:
Some shorties wore elevator shoes with several soles or blocks glued to the bottoms—for elevation to the top of the table.
CLIVE MEYERS, a black member of the British team, looked every bit like a professional boxer—wearing a long flowing green-silk robe with black and orange stripes, and wearing a wide green sleeve. But he wore a tawny brown towl draped over his head. But Meyers, a professional wrestler, did not make it all the way.
The American crowd, which had beenrazing Meyers since he first sturred on stage, shouted when his arm went down. A good sport, Meyers just laughed, and he chuckled on his shoulder in a victory-style fireman's carry.
Not all competitors were wild in appearance. One fellow, Claey Rosenwarth, from Wiltshire, Calif., wore a black-and-white jacket.
Rosencranz, 22, a tree trimmer with a budding blood blond arm, arm wrestled in an easy style. He would quilty approach the stretch his back, make the grip, and, after the second "go," put his opponents arm down. The longest it took him was 10 seconds.
"IT'S AN easy way to make money," the 6-foot-2
Rosenczernz said.
Like many other contestants, he said he got his start coming from a big family (seven brothers, six
"I was the best of the boys, and we were always arm wrestling," he said.
Roerencranz—who stayed alive for many hours in three different weight classes in the nine-hour single elimination tournament—said training was important.
"I work out with the heavyweight guys once a week." he said.
This group includes Virgil Archiero, 1977 Arm Wrestling International champion.
No alouce himself, Rosencranz won the 1975 World Professional Arm Wrestling Association middleweight division, 1978 Southern California and West Coast middleweight, repeated those in this year, won the IBF featherweight title this year, won the IWF middleweight this year, and the Carling O'Keeffe light and heavyweight championship this year.
IN THE WOMEN'S open division, Kelli Green, 15,
successfully defended her title.
The Arvada, Colo., midget school has the best arm wrestling for two years, and says she beats about 90 percent of the men she faces. She has plinned seven men who each weighed more than 280 pounds.
Green said her skill helps her on dates. She said she broke up with her boyfriend last month because
he thought it "wasn't feminine" to arm wrestle
the championship was a media event, with three cameras filming it for broadcast in England, Europe and the United States. Olympic gold medal winner Dwight Stones did the commentary for the telecast. Charles Wheeler, Kansas City, Mo., mayor, opened the competition by pitting a local disc jockey in less
THE CROWD, mostly competitors, cheered their teammates and favorites. They even sounded booed one fellow who, after his defeat by a referee's decision, said he would have to be forced to leave the stage. Apparently, after sizing up the referee, he decided to leave on his own.
Referee's decisions are important in the rule structure. There were two refs, one watching the bodies and arms, and the other watching the feet of the wrestlers. One foot has to remain on the ground. But the other can kick, twist around the table or use the arm wrestlers give all they have in their paws.
Sometimes all they have is "eeyayg." And sometimes all they have is the luck, skill, strength and strategy to arm wrestle to victory—a sport out of the taverns and onto television.
Loser or winner, the grimace of an armwrestler reveals the exhausting effort that is involved in the sport. More then 300 men and women, all with individual techniques, participated in the international armwrestling championships Saturday at Kansas City's Worlds of Fun.